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Here's a quick style guide on the holidays coming up:
- Mother's Day is just so, as opposed to Presidents Day or Veterans Day. The holiday is always on the second Sunday in May.
- Day is capitalized in May Day.
- Capitalize cinco and Mayo in Cinco de Mayo. The translation is "May 5," but it's a holiday that is treated like the Fourth of July. The holiday is always on May 5, so asking "When is Cinco de Mayo?" is like saying "What's the number for 9-1-1?"
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If you write about today's royal wedding (or any royal wedding for that matter), don't capitalize the r and w. I've seen this style quite frequently recently, and I'm not sure why writers and editors are doing this. Treat the words like the AP Stylebook does any generic terms - lowercase them.
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If you're a fan of this blog, we think you'll also enjoy Barry Wood's columns and blog posts. Wood writes and edits for the Rockford Register Star, a GateHouse Media newspaper, and offers great tips in his articles.
Recently he addressed ending a sentence with a preposition (the you-can't-do-that rule is a myth) and when to use a comma after the first word in a sentence - a rule I see ignored very frequently. Here's what he said about this:
Introductory elements - even a single word - are usually set off by a comma:
"Honey, I'm home."
But no commas should be used when a sentence begins with a coordinating conjunction - "and," "but," "yet," "or," "nor," "for."
These conjunctions should be followed by a comma only when also followed by an interruptive element: "But, as I've said before, this is an exception, not the rule."
Check out Wood's blog by clicking the link. GateHouse newspapers and subscribers can see his collection of columns on Wood's news service page.
From the latest AP style changes to timely copy editing reminders, check out everything you need to know to make your copy clean.
